Investigated incidence of adolescent suicide in Kansas and assessed prevention guidelines and services dealing with adolescent suicide, and perceived needs of Kansas secondary school counselors in the area of teenage suicide. Findings from 484 school counselors indicated increase in suicide rates with age and need for suicide prevention programing…

Discusses methodological and ethical issues pertaining to "psychological autopsy," an interview method for reconstruction of suicidal death through interviews with survivors, based on application of method to three studies of suicides and review of other investigations. Emphasizes consideration of integrity of deceased, integrity and health of…

Discusses role of shame in adolescent suicidal behaviors using psychoanalytic self-psychology of Heinz Kohut as theoretical foundation. Describes shame as central component of suicidal behavior within context of adolescence. Offers theoretical explanation of adolescent suicidal behavior from self-psychology perspective. Presents suggestions for…

Administered Suicide Opinion Questionnaire (SOQ) to 97 undergraduates. Analyzed 20 questions concerning misconceptions for percentage of endorsement by students. Found no significant main effects for gender and ethnicity on total number of endorsed misconceptions. For individual items, found differences among ethnic groups but not among gender…

Summarizes general features of domain of internalizing disorders in children and adolescents. Sees internalizing disorders, including depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, somatic disorders, and suicidal behaviors as associated with overcontrolled behaviors. Emphasizes need for psychologists and other mental health professionals to…

Notes that, although school administrators and parents are expecting school psychologists to be skillful in identifying and treating suicidal students, majority of graduate training programs in psychology do not offer specific training in suicidology. Reviews literature pertaining to suicidal youth, making certain distinctions so that more…

Conducted semistructured interviews with 100 young prisoners, 50 of whom had attempted suicide. Found that suicide attempters differed from general young prisoner population by extent of background deprivation and inability to cope or make constructive use of their sentence. Combined effects of hopelessness, history, current situation, and…

Notes that some scholars have argued that writing poetry was harmful for psychological health of Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton. Contends that their writing probably provided cathartic benefit for them and helped them gain cognitive distance from their inner conflicts. Argues that writing may have helped both poets survive longer than they might…

Focuses on suicidal ideation/attempts in children and adolescents. Identifies risk factors for suicidal behavior and precipitating events. Examples of suicidal thoughts, threats, and attempts are provided. Other sections consider assessment of suicide risk, responsibilities of school and treatment facility personnel, provision of emotional…

Notes that "suicide" has not always been preferred term in English-speaking societies for self-inflicted death. Recounts evidence suggesting that "suicide" was devised by Sir Thomas Browne and first published in book "Religio Medici" in 1643. Traces how "suicide" had become established as noun and verb by…

Anne Sexton, distinguished poet, killed herself in 1974. Sexton's poems, many dealing with suicide, read together with richly researched recent biography, enhanced by biographer's access to tapes of Sexton's sessions with her psychiatrist and by foreword by that psychiatrist, permit unusual opportunity to understand the interrelationship of her…

Reports on research into an electronic bulletin board devoted to the topic of suicide. Over an 11-month period, participants offered each other valuable resources in terms of validation of experience, sympathy, acceptance, and encouragement. They also asked proactive questions and furnished broad-ranging advice. Compares the bulletin board to…

Explains a situation in which the standard nonparametric one-sample runs test gives anomalous results and describes a procedure that allows the maximum run length to be determined empirically through a Monte Carlo permutation test. Illustrates the new procedure with examples from suicide research and psycholinguistics. (SLD)

Suicidal university counseling center patients provided information on reasons for living and dying (RFL/RFD). Analysis showed high levels of interrater reliability. Chi-square results for both coding categories showed coding categories were not equally salient to suicidal patients. Category results can be used to make the underlying constructs of…

Depressed adolescents who had never attempted suicide were compared to depressed adolescents who had attempted suicide. Results showed suicidal adolescents experienced significantly greater depression and hopelessness than did nonsuicidal adolescents. However, suicidal and nonsuicidal adolescents reported similar low levels of self esteem.…